Over three weeks had passed since the night Rachel helped Lexie out when she was caught shop lifting in Tesco. Lexie had been staying with Rachel ever since.
Rachel hadn't been able to get hold of Lexie's Mum and there was no way she could Lexie go into care. It was too important a time in Lexie's life for her to be put into the system.
Kim and Chris kept telling Rachel that she needed to ring social services but Rachel had no intention of doing this.
After another week of butting heads with Max at school, Rachel was relieved that Friday was here.
A couple of minutes after the bell went Olivia came rushing up to Rachel's office with a few of her friends.
"Rach is it okay if I go into town for a bit?"
"Yeah that's fine with me. What time do you want picking up?"
"I'll just walk home after"
"Are you sure? It's really cold"
"Yeah it's fine, I don't mind"
"Okay well have a good time. Angela and Mia are coming over for tonight, I think they're coming at about 6"
"I'll be back before then"
"Okay, have a good time girls"
Olivia went off with her friends so Rachel picked up her things and made her way to the car.
Rachel was really looking forward to Angela coming over tonight and having a couple of glasses of wine with her. She certainly needed someone to talk to Max about.
When Rachel got to the car Lexie was there waiting for her.
"Oh hiya Lexie. I thought you were going to walk back tonight"
"Well I was thinking I should probably just go home tonight"
"As supposed to where?"
"As in home to my Mum's house" Lexie said realising that Rachel hadn't understood what she meant
"Why is your Mum home?" Rachel asked feeling slightly disappointed
"Not that I know of but I can't just stay with you all the time. It isn't fair on you"
"I can't let you go and stay in a house on your own Lexie, you're only fifteen"
"Nearly sixteen"
"Still not old enough to have to look after yourself, especially in a house with no hot water and no heating"
"I don't want to get in the way though"
"You aren't getting in the way. Honestly, I like having you around Lex"
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely positive"
"Thank you. Do you think my Mum is ever coming back? It's been like two months now"
"I really have no idea love. Do you want a lift now you're here?"
"Okay then"
"Get in quickly then, we're late for picking up Daisy"
"Where's Olivia?" Lexie asked after getting into the car
"She's gone into town with some of her friends"
"Is Angela still coming over tonight?"
"Yep she is, and Mia"
"Cool"
Rachel drove to Daisy's primary school and collected her before driving home.
When they got in all three of them went upstairs to get changed into something a bit comfier.
Rachel had just finished getting changed out of her work clothes when Daisy came in.
"Rachel"
"Yes love" Rachel said while picking her dirty clothes up off the floor
"Why don't you have a husband?"
That really wasn't something Rachel was expecting Daisy to say and she couldn't help but laugh a bit.
"Why are you laughing?" Daisy asked deadly seriously
"I just wasn't expecting you to ask me that. I don't have a husband because I've never got married"
"But I thought everyone has a husband when they are your age"
"No not everyone. Lots of people my age do have husbands but I've never found someone that I wanted to marry"
"Eddie was nice. You could have married Eddie"
"Eddie was very nice but things didn't work out for us"
"When I'm your age I want to have a husband and lots of babies"
"Do you now? Well that's still a long way away isn't it. Right, what do you want to do now?"
"I want to finish making the loom band necklace that I started last night"
"Okay do you want to sit at the breakfast bar and do it while I prepare dinner?"
"Yes please"
Rachel and Daisy both went downstairs.
Daisy had a snack and then started doing her loom band necklace.
Rachel made a start on the curry she was making for tonight.
"What do you want for your tea tonight Daisy? We're having curry which you don't like so I thought you could eat earlier"
"Why can't I eat with you?"
"Because our curry won't be ready until after your bedtime"
"But it's Friday, I can stay up later than my bed time"
"Not tonight Daisy. You can have fish fingers or chicken dippers if you like"
"Fine I'll have fish fingers. Can I have smiley faces too?"
"If that's what you'd like. Do you want beans or peas?"
"Peas please"
"Okay. It will be ready in about an hour"
Rachel started chopping up an onion when Lexie came into the kitchen.
"Do you want some help?"
"I'm happy doing it unless you would like to help"
"I'd like to"
"Okay do you want to chop the onions then and I'll do the chicken"
Lexie was always really helpful around the house which Rachel appreciated a lot.
After another hour Olivia came home after going into town with her friends.
Rachel was just putting Daisy's tea down in front of her when Olivia walked in.
"Hiya love, did you have a good time in town?"
"Yeah it was good. We went to Costa and had a look around the shops"
"Did you buy anything?"
"No I didn't really see anything I liked. I'm just going to go and change out of my uniform"
"Okay. Do you want to eat now or do you want to wait and have curry?" Rachel asked quietly so that Daisy wouldn't hear
"I'll wait and have curry"
"It probably won't be ready until about half seven after I've put Daisy to bed"
"That's fine"
Olivia went upstairs and got changed out of her uniform.
It wasn't much longer before Angela and Mia arrived.
"Lexie's up n her room if you want to go and see her Mia" Rachel said hoping she would go up so that she could speak to Angela on her own.
"I'll go up now"
Olivia and Daisy were both upstairs too so it was just Rachel and Angela.
Angela brought over a bottle of prosecco so Rachel opened it up straight away. After the week she'd had she felt as though she really needed it.
Rachel and Angela went into the lounge and had a chat. Rachel talked all about Max and Angela talked about her husband working all the time.
After another hour Lexie and Mia appeared downstairs. The girls had become quite close since Lexie had started staying with Rachel even though they were in different school years.
Mia sat down next to her Mum on the sofa and Lexie sat next to Rachel.
"Rachel we were wondering if Mia could sleep over tonight"
"Yeah that's fine by me"
"Cool thanks"
"I guess we may as well finish off the rest of this bottle of prosecco and then I'd better get Daisy to bed. I haven't seen her for a while, I'll just go and check she's okay"
"Olivia and Daisy are in the play room watching a film, I just saw them" Lexie said
"That's alright then. Angela and I were thinking about going for a nice walk somewhere on Sunday, do you girls fancy it?"
"That sounds good" Mia said
"I don't know if I'll have time. If we're going shopping tomorrow and I've got loads of homework to do" Lexie said
"I'm sure you can fit it all in if you'd like to come"
"I've got loads to do though. Mrs Roberts sets so much maths homework, it's actually ridiculous the amount she sets"
"You are in year 11 now"
"I wish Mr Lawson was still my teacher, he always used to give a good amount and understood that we needed a break too"
"Mrs Roberts is a very good teacher"
"Not as good as Mr Lawson though, how come he did leave?"
"I already told you when I announced it in assembly"
"You just said he had a new job. But that doesn't explain why he left Waterloo Road"
"He just needed a change"
"Do you still see Mr Lawson?"
"No I haven't seen him since August"
"You and Mr Lawson were so good together, it's sad you broke up"
"I know but these things happen" Rachel said sadly
"Everyone at school thought you were going to end up getting married, we thought you were meant to be together" Mia said
"How come you did break up?" Lexie asked
"Well Mr Lawson is having a baby with Miss Ryan so it didn't really make sense for us to be together"
The prosecco had gone right to Rachel's head. Otherwise she probably would have changed the subject by now.
"It was obvious Mr Lawson wanted to be with you and not Miss Ryan though, surely you could make it work"
"Yeah no-one could believe it when Mr Lawson and Miss Ryan got together. We all thought you and Mr Lawson were about to get together" Mia said
"You two are so nosey" Angela said laughing
"Yeah well Mr Lawson and Miss Ryan did get together so that's that" Rachel said before finishing off her glass of prosecco
"Right I'm going to put Daisy to bed and then I'll get the rice on for the curry"
Rachel walked out before Mia and Lexie could ask anymore questions.
Daisy was reluctant to go to bed but Rachel quickly got her into bed once she stopped kicking up a fuss.
When she came down Rachel got the rice cooking and Olivia helped her put some poppadum's and dips on the table for everyone.
Everyone came and sat at the table and Rachel got out a bottle of white wine for her and Angela.
After having poppadum's Rachel brought the rice, curry and naan breads over to the table and everyone dished up and started eating.
"This is delicious Rach" Angela said
"Lexie helped make it too"
"It's so tasty" Mia added
They all had a really nice evening and ended up chatting a lot. Olivia, Lexie and Mia all enjoyed talking with Rachel and Angela.
Angela went home at about ten and Mia and Lexie went up to the room Lexie was staying in.
Rachel went and said goodnight to Olivia before going to her own bedroom to change into her pyjamas.
Once she was ready for bed Rachel decided to text Eddie. She'd had a lot of wine and she was missing him so much.
Rachel text Eddie telling him how miserable Max was making Waterloo Road for her and how much she missed him. She sent it before lying down in bed and going straight to sleep.
After having a few hours of sleep Rachel woke up and suddenly remembered texting Eddie last night.
Rachel grabbed her phone immediately and saw a couple of missed calls and a text from Eddie. She opened up the messages to see what she had said to Eddie.
Rachel felt really embarrassed and couldn't believe she'd sent a drunken message to Eddie. Now she really was regretting having so much wine.
After that Rachel had a really bad nights sleep and kept waking up thinking about what she'd done and what she was going to say to Eddie.
Rachel was asleep when Daisy climbed into her bed the next morning at about 7.
Daisy snuggled into Rachel which woke Rachel up.
"Morning love, it's not time to get up already is it?"
"It's past seven"
"But it's Saturday. Shall we stay in here and cuddle for a bit?"
"Okay"
Rachel was relieved when Daisy laid there quietly cuddling into her. She had a banging headache and realised today was probably going to be a bit of a struggle.
After lying in bed with Daisy for about half an hour Rachel went downstairs with Daisy who was starting to get restless.
Daisy went into the lounge and put the TV on while Rachel went and made herself a coffee and took some paracetamol.
Rachel then went into the lounge and sat on the sofa.
"Rachel you aren't listening to me" Daisy said bringing Rachel out of her thoughts
"Sorry love, what did you say?"
"What are we doing today?"
"I think we'll have a lazy morning and then we're going to go shopping this afternoon"
"Shopping is boring, can't we go swimming instead?"
"We went swimming last weekend and Olivia and Lexie want to go shopping this weekend so we're going to do that today"
If Rachel wasn't feeling so hungover she may have considered doing both but going to a swimming pool was the last thing she felt like doing today.
Rachel realised she needed to say something to Eddie so that he would hopefully stop calling.
It took Rachel ages to figure out what to say but eventually she sent the text. She really hoped Eddie would let the situation go now and not try and ring her about it again.
After another hour Olivia, Lexie and Mia were all up too.
Mia headed straight home as she was going out with her friends today so needed to go home to get ready.
"Right I'm going to go up for a shower and then how does pancakes sound for breakfast?"
The girls all liked this idea.
Rachel had a shower and got dressed before coming down to make pancakes for the girls as promised.
"Aren't you having pancakes today Rachel?" Olivia asked
"No I'm not really hungry this morning" Rachel replied
"Are you hungover?" Lexie asked
"No I'm just not hungry that's all"
"I bet you are, you had loads of wine last night"
"Well maybe I am a little bit" Rachel said honestly
"Does that mean we aren't going shopping anymore?" Olivia asked sounding disappointed
"We're still going shopping, don't worry. We'll go after lunch though"
Rachel started clearing up from making the pancakes and had nearly finished when there was a knock at the door.
The person standing on the other side of the door really wasn't someone Rachel felt like talking to right now. She didn't exactly have a choice now other than to open the door though as he would have seen her through the front door.
Rachel slowly opened the door.
"Eddie" Rachel said smiling "what are you doing here?"
"You're not returning any of my calls Rach, I wanted to check you're okay"
"I'm fine"
"Really, because it didn't sound like it from your text message last night"
"I'd just had too much wine Eddie. Honestly I made it sound worse than it is"
"See I don't think that you did Rachel. Can I come in so that we can talk?"
Rachel realised that Eddie wasn't going to take no for an answer so let him in.
It had been so long since Eddie had been in her house and him being there was making her stomach do somersaults.
Eddie ended up staying for about an hour. Rachel had to admit that after he left she felt a lot better about the whole Max situation. He'd made her realise that she could stand up to Max.
After Eddie left Rachel went upstairs to check on the girls who were definitely going to have a lot of questions about why Eddie had come over.
Rachel got Daisy dressed before going to see what Olivia and Lexie were up to.
Lexie was in her bedroom doing some homework.
Rachel then went into Olivia's bedroom.
"I'm going to go to Tesco in a minute love. Do you want to come with me or stay here?" Rachel asked and then noticed Olivia's chest. Olivia was wearing a bra, which she didn't normally, and one that looked like it was way too big for her
"Can I stay here please?"
"Yes of course"
Rachel then went and closed Olivia's bedroom door realising that she needed to have a little chat with her.
"Why have you closed the door?" Olivia asked
"I want to talk to you about something. Come and sit down a sec love"
Rachel and Olivia both took a seat on Olivia's bed.
"I see you're wearing a bra. Did you buy that yesterday?" Rachel asked gently
Olivia's cheeks turned bright red because she felt really embarrassed Rachel had found her with it on. She had been about to take it off when Rachel came in because she didn't know it would make her boobs look so big.
Olivia nodded her head.
"Do you think it's maybe a bit big?"
"Yes sorry I'm going to take it off now, I don't know why I bought it"
"Hey you don't need to be sorry. You're 11 now, I'm not surprised you want to start wearing a bra. How about when we're shopping later we go and get you one that fits properly, would you like that?"
"Yes please"
"Okay that's what we'll do then. I'll ask Lexie to look after Daisy for a bit and we can go off just the two of us for a little while to get it sorted"
"Thank you"
"You didn't have to go and buy the bra on your own you know? You could have just talked to me about it so I could help you out"
All of a sudden Olivia burst into tears.
"Oh love I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you upset" Rachel said before pulling Olivia into her so she could give her a hug
"It's not your fault"
"What's made you upset?"
"It's just all my friends went bra shopping with their Mum and I've been wanting to get one for ages but I was too scared to speak to you about it"
"You didn't need to be scared to talk to me about it but I do get that speaking about these things can be a bit tricky. I know I'm not your Mum but I do want you to be able to come to me whether it's because you want to get a bra or someone has upset you at school or just because you fancy a chat about something. I'm here for you, whatever you need. I'm not going to try and replace your Mum but you really don't need to do it on your own, I'm here"
"Thank you" Olivia said
"Right now let's wipe away those tears" Rachel said before brushing the tears off of Olivia's cheeks
Olivia offered Rachel a small smile.
"There, a smile that's better"
"Rachel please could I actually come to Tesco with you?"
"Yep it will just be the two of us. Daisy and Lexie are both staying here"
"Okay"
"Are you going to take that bra off first though?"
"Yeah I look so stupid"
"You don't look stupid. Your boobs just aren't that big yet"
"I don't really have any boobs, I thought you'd say I don't need one yet"
"You have started to develop a bit love. I definitely think it's time you started wearing something which is why I was already planning on seeing if you wanted to get one today anyway"
"Really?"
"Yep really"
"I wish I never bought it yesterday"
"It doesn't matter, we'll just take it back today"
Rachel went downstairs and got some bags out ready to go shopping whilst Olivia got changed.
The two of them then headed off to Tesco and Olivia enjoyed having a bit of time with Rachel to herself.